


I Need Barbara

by saphique



Category: August: Osage County (2013)
Genre: Anger, Cruel Mother, Depression, Difficult Decisions, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Insanity, Love/Hate, Mother-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 23:51:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15695913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saphique/pseuds/saphique
Summary: Smoking her cigarette, hiding behind her smoked glasses, Violet remembers the veins demarcated on Barbara's forehead when her screams exceed her own. Never will a mother admit to loving provoking her daughter simply to admire her irritation, a reflection of her own pure energy.





	I Need Barbara

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [J'ai Besoin de Barbara](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14930976) by [saphique](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saphique/pseuds/saphique). 



Violet is an indisputably intelligent woman, extremely mean-spirited and deeply unhappy.

Barbara's departure to follow her husband to another state broke her old mother's heart. Certainly, she carries this injury on Beverly's back and makes him bear the burden.

"You broke your father's heart by moving so far," she repeats to Barbara when every opportunity arises, despite the fact that Beverly has clearly given her his blessing.

Never Violet would have approved this departure. Or rather, she would never have approved the reasons for this departure. _Follow her husband_. _What nonsense_. While Barbara had so much to offer, a promising career. Violet screams the truth when she says that her daughters, spoiled and educated, would all have been able to become presidents, executive, etc. Especially Barbara.

And here they are, their three daughters with mediocre lives. Violet is convinced that Barbara's departure did not just break her heart, but sentenced her sisters to mediocrity. Barbara had a major influence on their personal developments. Her unwavering confidence was an inspiration. Until she decides to run away with Bill to support him, for his career, neglecting hers. Bill is very kind, a little innocent, and he could not understand the whole universe that had just collapsed around them.

Violet simply states the truth, a truth that seems conflictual because it comes from the depths. The enumerated truths have roots, furrow to the heart of the family.

What Violet can not say is that Barbara is indispensable to her. Unable to formulate this completely, she murmurs here and there. _I need Barbara. Where is Barbara? When does Barbara arrive?_

Barbara did not come to comfort her when the news of the cancer of the mouth fell. Is there a form of revenge behind this indifference?

Despite these wounds accumulating in Violet's mischievous heart, Violet still misses her daughter. In reality, it's Barbara's ability to shout louder than Violet that she misses. It's easy to push further, to share bottomless anger, to rise high around the kitchen table and raise voices. Violet is in need of the harshness and brutality Barbara is capable of. Violet requires Barbara because she reminds her of her own passion, her dark energy, her ability to meet all challenges.

Smoking her cigarette, hiding behind her smoked glasses, Violet remembers the veins demarcated on Barbara's forehead when her screams exceed her own. Never will a mother admit to loving provoking her daughter simply to admire her irritation, a reflection of her own pure energy.

Violet is in need of Barbara and understands perfectly well that she will not be able to continue living this loneliness without senescence. Pure madness comes to visit her, only Violet does not recognize it as madness itself. Does the drug addiction triggers it or camouflages it?

It's this madness that broke everything definitively, during that specific morning of heat wave. While each family member left suddenly, without showing any intention to return - Bill and Jean outraged by the sexual assault, Steve the pig and Karen the poor idiot on the run to escape the judgments, Ivy and little Charles determined to start a new life, Mattie Faye and Charles exhausted - there was only Barbara at the table with her, to eat the fish prepared by Johnna.

The fish now on the ground, surrounded by broken pieces of plates.

"When there is nothing left, I will remain, I'll still be here!" she yells at the universe, at the invisible personalities that provoke her imagination.

"Who's the strongest?!" she asks forcefully, convinced of the answer.

Except that Violet hoped, with all her heart, to hear Barbara answer _Me, mom. I am the strongest_. But, of course not, this is not Barbara's answer, because her daughter shares the same intelligences, so she answers exactly the opposite of her mother's desires, offers her the answer that her mother deserves.

"It's you mom, you're the strongest," replies Barbara, bitter and proud.

Barbara kisses her mother with no affection on her head, presses on her her skinny shoulders with her sweaty hands, before finally leaving the house, abandoning her mother with her intelligence, her pettiness, her depression and her madness.

The coldness of loneliness strikes the disturbed spirit of Violet. Looking around the room, searching at arm's length, calling in her trembling voice, no one answers. _I need Barbara._

So Violet resorts to hypocrisy, finds solace in the kindness and tenderness - qualities that disgusts her - in the arms of the unknown Native American who greets her on the attic stairs, without saying anything, without judgment.


End file.
